Nagpur: A six-year-old girl's playful moments at home turned into an unimaginable tragedy, but in the midst of their grief, her parents chose to give others a chance to live. Aakansha Bansod from Khapri, Nagpur, suffered a severe head injury on June 8 after her foot got entangled in a rope while playing. Despite efforts by doctors at AIIMS Nagpur, she could not be saved following a massive brain haemorrhage and was declared brain dead by the hospital's Brain Stem Death Committee.
In a decision marked by courage and compassion, her parents, Mahadev and Mina Bansod, agreed to donate her organs, turning their personal loss into hope for other families following counselling by transplant coordinators. While no suitable recipient was available for her liver, both kidneys were successfully transplanted into a 15-year-old girl at AIIMS Nagpur, making the six-year-old the region's 196th deceased organ donor and the 11th of 2026.
Just four days earlier, another family made a similar life-saving decision. Amit Baban Ambekar (33), a fireman from Padoli in Chandrapur, succumbed to injuries sustained in a road accident. Ambekar had sustained a severe head injury after his two-wheeler skidded and struck a road divider on June 9. After initial treatment in Chandrapur, he was shifted to Govt Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Nagpur, where he was declared brain dead. After counselling, his father Baban Ambekar, brother Shashank and uncle Rajkumar consented to organ donation. His liver was transplanted into a 46-year-old man at GMC and Super Speciality Hospital, Nagpur, one kidney into a 35-year-old man at the same hospital, and the second kidney into a 46-year-old woman at a private hospital in Nagpur. His corneas were also donated to GMCH.
In both cases, hospital staff formed honour corridors to pay tribute to the donors before organ retrieval, while the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) ensured smooth coordination and arranged free ambulance services to transport the bodies to their native places. ZTCC officials said the two donations underscore the growing awareness about organ donation in the region and the profound impact a single family's decision can have in saving and transforming multiple lives.
